1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical tone signal generating apparatus which previously stores waveform data representative of waveforms of musical tones in a memory to read out, in response to a demand for starting generation of a musical tone, the waveform data from the memory to generate a musical tone signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-5758, for example, a musical tone signal generating apparatus has been known which stores waveform data representative of waveforms of decay-type musical tones in a memory in a manner in which respective key tone pitches are correlated with the waveforms to read out, in response to depressions of keys, waveform data corresponding to the depressed keys with the passage of time to generate musical tone signals. The conventional musical tone signal generating apparatus is designed such that the read-out starting position of waveform data varies depending on the level of strength of a key touch. More specifically, a strong key touch results in starting reading out waveform data from the top whereas the read-out starting position of waveform data moves backward as the strength of a key touch decreases. As a result, the conventional musical tone signal generating apparatus enables generation of musical tone signals having amplitudes corresponding to respective levels of strength of key touches. The above-described patent publication also discloses that the invention of the patent publication can be also applied to generation of musical tones of percussion instruments by storing waveform data representative of waveforms of percussion musical tones in the memory to change the read-out starting position of the waveform data depending on the level of strength of striking of the percussion instruments to generate a musical tone signal according to the level of strength of the striking as in the above-described case.